


It's Not The End of the World (But I Can See it From Here)

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Kissing, Zombies, sam is troubled, sarah wants to help, trouble always follows sam around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 12:59:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7362364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean are on a break when Sam runs into an old friend. And the dead rise. Just your average Thursday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Not The End of the World (But I Can See it From Here)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [odysseaia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/odysseaia/gifts).



> Thanks to the lovely innerslytherin for the beta! Title taken from the Lostprophets song of the same name. Originally written for odysseaia at the spnrarepairs exchange.
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2010.

Desire for blood thrummed through Sam's brain. The beat of it pressed against his head, a near constant headache that no amount of pills seemed to get rid of. He was a danger to everyone around him, that's what he told himself. This break from Dean, from the Apocalypse, from the slip/slide of Lucifer's want was exactly what he needed right now.

He sank down onto the nearest available bench, unsure whether he even knew he was lying to himself. His real problem, he decided, as he stared out at the small town he'd found himself in, was that he was far too self-aware for his own good.

“You look terrible.”

Sam jerked at the voice and looked up, a cutting remark of his own on the tip of his tongue. But instead he found himself staring, open-mouthed, at the woman in front of him.

“Sarah?” he finally managed after a moment. She gave a small smile and nodded. “What are you -”

He hadn't seen her since...his brain hurt just trying to think about everything that had happened between then and now. But he remembered helping her and that she'd helped him. And of course he remembered their kiss.

“I've branched out on my own,” she said, her smile more confident this time. “I took out a loan and have opened my own art gallery. It's just across the road, if you want to look?”

Sam's eyes drifted to where she indicated. It was a small squat building set between a row of others – an insurance agents, a bank and a car rental agency. It looked cosy from the outside and Sam was agreeing to go with her before he even registered that he had stood up.

“Is Dean here with you?” Sarah asked. Her eyes darted around to the cars parked along the street, trying to spot the Impala.

“No,” said Sam. “He's not.”

Sarah frowned but decided to wait a little before she did any pushing. Sam looked like he could do with a hot drink and a long sleep.

“Come on, then.” She strode across the road aware of Sam's footsteps behind her. It was so long since she'd last laid eyes on him, but she still remembered with shocking clarity the kiss they had shared and the way it had made her feel. She still regretted that nothing more had come of it, even if they were both in impossible situations. She'd had a life there and he, he was still mourning his girlfriend, and had a job he felt burdened by. She wondered how much worse his life had got for him to be looking the way he did now.

Sam stepped into the office and stared around him. It was full of bright art-work on the walls, with a small desk at the front manned by a perky looking receptionist and another office near the back which he presumed was Sarah's. Another open door revealed a kitchen area and a further corridor led back deeper into the building.

“Janice, this is Sam. He's an old friend of mine.”

Janice stood up, straightened her skirt and extended her hand. Sam took it automatically and smiled at her. She flushed bright red and sat down quickly. Sarah did a poor job of hiding her smile.

“Tea, or coffee?” Sarah asked, taking Sam by the elbow to steer him into the kitchen.

“Coffee would be great. Thanks.” Sam shivered. He was suddenly aware of how cold he felt, and wondered vaguely if he was coming down with something. He purposefully didn't think about anything to do with withdrawal.

“Sorry,” said Sarah, waving at the A/C unit on the wall. “The air conditioner's stuck on full and no one can come fix it till tomorrow.”

“I could take a look?”

“Really? That would be great.”

Sam leaned in the doorway and watched her move about the kitchen. She still seemed the same as ever, her long hair in a scruffy braid that made her look even more beautiful. Sarah felt his eyes on her, but said nothing.

“You look good,” he said after a beat. She smiled to herself before turning around.

“I wish I could say the same...”

Sam gave a self-deprecating shrug. “Yeah, well. It's been a long few months.”

Sarah nodded. “There's been a lot of strange stuff happening. I thought maybe you were here on a job?”

Sam's senses immediately prickled. He was supposed to be getting away from all that, from anything that might bleed back into what he had done. But then...

“What kind of job?”

Sarah shrugged and handed him a hot cup of coffee. “There's been some crazy rumours. You know how folks get in small towns like this...”

Sam nodded, letting Sarah tell the tale at her own pace. She leaned back against the counter top, her brow furrowed. Sam had the urge to smooth the wrinkles out with the tips of his fingers, but shook himself free of it.

“People say. And when I say people I mean the locals at the bar across the way...” Sarah smiled and Sam returned it. “They say there's a woman in white, like a bride, that's been wandering through the streets.”

“Could be a prank? Some hazing thing?” Sam asked.

Sarah shook her head. “That's what I thought at first too. But there's no colleges close enough for it to be worth their while to come out here.”

Sam waited. He could see she had more to tell him, and despite himself he was intrigued. There was the usual rush of knowledge that came at him when first chasing down a job that couldn't be beat, and he could see in the flush of her cheeks that she was feeling it too.

“And when I did a bit more digging because well,” she gave a shrug and waved her free hand at Sam, “you know. Once you _know_ this stuff is real...”

“You can't go back to not-knowing, no matter how much you might want to? Yeah, I know how that goes.”

Sarah nodded. “I checked out the local obituaries and something caught my eye. There _was_ a woman killed on her wedding day 10 years ago. And she was buried in her wedding dress!”

“Okay,” Sam said, “find the grave, salt and burn the bones, case closed.”

“Hmm.”

“What?” Sam fought the automatic step back he'd been about to make as Sarah sidled closer to him, her breath ticking his throat.

“The corpse was going to be Janice’s step-mom. If the wedding had gone ahead,” she whispered.

They both stared out of the kitchen door into the office area where they could just about make out Janice, her legs crossed and bouncing distractedly as she filed her nails.

“You think she might have...” Sam asked, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“No, no, no,” Sarah said. “Maybe? God, Sam, I don't know. I wasn't sure what to do. No one will believe me anyway...”

“How did she die?”

“The newspaper said it was a car accident. Brake failure on the way to the church. Her dad got hurt too. And the driver of the car was in a coma for months."

Sam shrugged a shoulder.

“Janice is only working here because the garage she used to work at closed down. She was one of the mechanics.”

Sam bit his lower lip and tried to think about what Sarah was telling him and not the way her hand had automatically grabbed at his arm while she'd been talking, or the way it stayed there, Sarah's body making him want in a way he hadn't in a very long time.

It certainly didn't look good for her friend, but it could still all be coincidental.

“It could still all be...”

Sarah eagerly interrupted him. “I know, but if you and me, we could watch out, tonight. Her ghost, or whatever it is, is supposed to pass by here every night. We could follow it, see if anything happens?”

Sam thought about what he would rather be doing with Sarah and then shook his head. One kiss wasn't worth getting that worked up about, even if right now all he wanted to do was pull her towards him, and forget anything and everything to do with the Apocalypse.

Instead he nodded. “Sure, sounds good.”

He decided Sarah's smile was worth it.

* * * * * *

The day might have been fairly pleasant, but the night turned bitterly cold and the broken air conditioner wasn't exactly helping matters. Sam had tried to fix it, as promised, but no matter what he did it didn't seem to have any effect. He wished he had an EMF with him, but without it he could only theorise that it was haunted somehow. Maybe there _was_ a serious ghostly problem infecting the town.

Or maybe he just wasn't as good with his hands as he used to be.

He shook his head and pulled his coat closer around him. Sarah was sitting cross-legged by the window, half-hidden by a large potted plant. Sam supposed it was the best they could do in the circumstances.

He'd spent the afternoon in the local library, which is about all it would have taken to read every book on the shelves. He couldn’t find anything else about the woman, Katherine Morrison, that Sarah hadn't already managed to dig up. No enemies of any kind, unless Janice really didn't want a new mom, no financial troubles, and nothing to suggest at all that her death hadn't been a terrible tragedy.

Despite all his and Dean's efforts, those did still happen with unerring frequency.

Still, he'd promised Sarah and as he sat down next to her, he certainly didn’t regret it. She snuggled closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, letting himself touch her for the first time that day. He'd love to just pull her down with him on to the floor, to sink his....

“What's that?” Sarah asked. Her words shattered what little of his daydream he still had a hold of.

He followed her gaze. A woman in white was walking down the street, her steps purposeful. She kept her gaze straight ahead, paying no mind to anything on either side of the road. Sam stood up and Sarah scrambled after him.

“So, do we follow her?” Sarah asked.

“Well...” Sam stopped. He looked back down the road where the woman had come from and then cursed under his breath. “We wouldn't be the only ones.”

Sarah's gaze turned wide-eyed. “But that's...that's Mr Philips, the butcher, he died last week. A heart attack. And Mrs Buckley, she fell and hit her head at the nursing home....”

“Not ghosts,” Sam said. “Zombies.”

* * * * * *

“Where do you think they're going?” Sarah asked.

Sam had decided in the end that the only thing to do _was_ to follow them, and find out what they were planning. There were too many of them to take on with just him and Sarah and no real weapons; Sam's cache would only handle so many. They needed a proper plan, and preferably one with a built-in ambush point, but until he could do that, he just had to watch.

“I don't know,” Sam replied. “They're not heading towards a cemetery?”

“No,” Sarah shook her head. “They're heading away from one.” She paused a moment, flicking at the end of her hair. “Did they, did they have to dig themselves out?”

Sam nodded, eyes intent on the woman in the bridal dress, still leading the way forward.

“That must be awful,” Sarah said. “It would be like being buried alive only...”

“I've seen much worse,” Sam said. Which put a halt to that conversation.

* * * * * * *

“Fire,” Sam said. “We could set them all on fire.” His eyes narrowed as he saw the very last building on the street – a hunting store. “There'd be plenty of stuff in there.”

“But it's locked, how would we...” Sarah's voice trailed off as Sam darted through the shadows and pulled his lock picking kit out of his pocket. “Oh, right, I forgot that's how they did things.”

After a few minutes Sam waved at her and she hurried over to his side. She couldn’t believe that she was doing this again, with Sam. But even as she thought it to herself, she was glad she was. Her whole world view had shifted the day Sam and his brother had come into her life.

“We can use these,” Sam said, pulling out some flare guns from behind the counter. Sarah just nodded, eyes darting around to see if anything else would be useful.

“What about these?” she asked, indicating some of the axes attached to the wall. “Chop off their heads?”

Sam looked at her as if he'd just seen her grow another one. “You're really enjoying this, aren't you?”

Sarah shrugged sheepishly. “Maybe? I mean...”

But her words were cut off when something grabbed her hair and yanked her backwards. Her arms flailed, trying to reach the counter, but it was too far and she was being dragged outside before she could do anything to defend herself.

“Hey!” Sam shouted. He bolted over the counter, flare in his hand, and fired it, straight into the zombie's chest.

The zombie stared down at itself, face almost comical in its surprise, until it evaporated into flame and ash and Sarah was pushing herself backwards on her elbows, trying to get as far away as possible.

“Sam!” she shouted, in warning, as more zombies began to descend on them. Sam left her alone for a terrifying moment while he grabbed some guns and more flares from the store.

Sarah took the proffered gun without comment, checked that it was loaded, and then shot the nearest zombie in the head. Sam swallowed his surprise, and did the same to a zombie that was approaching on his right.

“We won't have enough ammunition,” Sarah hissed. “There's too many of them...”

Sam knew that she was right, but just keeping them both alive was taking all of his concentration right now.

There was a sudden screech, as if fingernails were being dragged along a chalkboard, and everybody, dead and alive, winced.

“What...?” Sarah started to ask, but Sam just shook his head. He had no idea.

The zombies seemed to have plenty of idea though as they turned away with obvious reluctance from Sam and Sarah and started to shuffle back the way they had been going.

Sam stared up at the incline of the hill and saw the zombie bride beckon to the others. Whatever they were doing, it was important enough that they didn't care about leaving witnesses.

Sarah brushed a stray hair away from her eyes, smudging her face with dirt. “What now?”

“Back to plan A, I guess.” And with great reluctance he and Sarah trudged after the zombies, keeping their wits about them, but not facing any further attacks.

* * * * * *

“What's wrong with his eyes?” Sarah asked. She was pointing at the man in an impeccable suit and tie, standing straight backed and imperious in the middle of a ring of zombies.

“He's a demon,” Sam explained in a hushed tone, though no one around them seemed to be paying them any attention.

“Oh,” Sarah said futilely. “What do you think he's doing?”

Sam paused before answering. There was so much more going on in the world than Sarah would ever understand. If he couldn’t explain it to his _brother_... “There's a war going on,” Sam told her, finally, because much as he liked her it felt good to shatter someone else's illusions about the world around them. Better that than breaking bones, he thought. Then reconsidered when he saw the shocked look on Sarah's face. He'd kiss that look off her if he thought it would do any good.

“Are we winning?” Sarah asked after a second.

Sam opened his mouth and then closed it.

“Right,” Sarah said. “Well, one problem at a time. How do we....” She gasped as each of the zombies that had been standing in the circle dropped to the floor. The demon was smiling, his eyes still black, and Sam knew, he _felt_ the demon's smile reaching out to him. His knowing look mocking him. Sam felt a rage building in his chest, his fingers twitching to yank that black smoke out of him...but Sarah was there, her worried face tilted towards his, her small hand on his arm.

“Sam?” she said, “you're kinda scaring me more than he is.”

Sam looked down at her and then quickly away, not sure what expression she was going to see on his face. He took a minute to calm himself, which was all it took for the demon to vanish into the night.

* * * * * *

“They're probably really dead now,” Sam explained. “But we should burn the bodies anyway, just in case.”

Sarah nodded. That at least was something she could get her head around. They hadn't spoken about what had happened before. Sarah had wanted to, but she got the very real impression that she wouldn't like the answer. She didn’t know what had happened to Sam in the years since she'd last seen him, but it wasn't good that was for sure. She hadn't even realised how much she had missed him till he was standing there in front of her.

“You'll be okay,” Sam told her. His voice sounded hollow, with little inflexion, and Sarah swallowed back her tears.

“It's really bad, isn't it?”

Sam just stood there, frozen, until Sarah moved forward and kissed him, pushing him up against the nearest tree and pressing herself towards him. Something broke inside of Sam then and he flipped her, and she let him take from the kiss whatever he needed. Whatever would help.

Minutes seemed to pass until Sam was done, gently moving away from Sarah and trailing her face with his fingertips, as if trying to memorise her features by touch alone.

“I can't stay here,” he said. “There's too much damage. Things I've done. Things I didn't do. And it's obvious they'll always know where I am.” But when this is all over, Sam thought to himself, maybe then.

“It's okay,” Sarah said, even though it was anything but. “I'll be okay.”

Sam nodded and then slowly walked away, heading out of town and out of her life, leaving her with more questions than answers. Again.


End file.
